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Diversions

We’ve all heard (and likely said out loud) the proverb by James Howell; “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” At Foundry Group we take this proverb to heart. If you follow us you already know this. You know that Brad runs and writes like a fiend, and faithfully takes quarterly off-the-grid vacations. You know that Jason and Ryan are incredible musicians; if they aren’t holding a laptop they’re holding a guitar or drumsticks. You also know that to meet with Seth you just might need to dust off that bike and get into some bike shorts. These diversions are the perfect ingredients for sustainable creativity.

Video

I’m a VC

The film entitled “I’m a VC” is an in-depth, hard-hitting, and emotionally charged look into the lives of four veteran venture capitalists trying to make the world a better place. Starring Foundry Group partner Seth Levine, Ryan McIntyre, Brad Feld, and Jason Mendelson, the film gives insight into the VC ecosystem that the public has never seen before. VCs deal with many difficult issues on a regular basis that few know about, including what to eat for lunch, competing with friends and family for deal flow, and feeling insecure about their choice of college education.

The Worst of Times

In 2013, we decided to change our investing strategy. Previously, we had focused on cutting edge technologies within our well-known investment themes. At some point, we decided to focus on more proven technologies that present less technology risk. Seth felt “the golden age of technology occurred 30 to 40 years ago”, Ryan believes that “while the smartphone ecosystem has enjoyed tremendous growth, with dropped calls and other software issues, people will eventually move 100% back to landlines. For that reason, we will begin to invest in corded phone technologies. Jason expected that “many folks will not fully understand this decision and potentially think we are making a mistake. The video was produced to visually show people the ineptness of current technology and clearly show how much better off we were yesteryear.” Finally, Brad was unreachable after replacing his office iMac with an Apple II computer connected to a Hayes 2400 Baud Modem. Apparently, he has yet to figure out how to connect to the Internet and will revert from using email to dictating messages to his assistant.

Bored Meeting

So Seriously? A third video?

Yep. It’s been four years since our last video, Worst of Times was released. In that one we poked fun of today’s technology not always being as helpful as it could be. Two years before that we released I’m a VC which made fun of venture capitalists (which, to be fair, are very easy targets). In total, the videos had nearly 400,000 views before we accidentally erased the counter which, apparently, is an unrecoverable event. (Thanks YouTube).

After years of painstaking research, the firm discovered that nearly 13,729 hours of time are wasted per day by entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and board members attending meetings that, while well intentioned, usually contain multiple inefficiencies that are needlessly present. Thus, we thought it was time for a video manifesto on board meetings to be released.

Foundry WayBack Machine

Over the years we’ve enjoyed keeping things light on our website by posing for pictures in different settings and with a variety of different themes. Here are some of the pictures from over the years.